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| Image courtesy of www.motorsport.com |
I am making this because of the takeover of the commercial side of F1 by Liberty Media that has brought some really great things to the table - such as the F1 Live shows like the event in London that took place a week before the British Grand Prix - and overall has really modernised F1, even if the new logo isn't that nice to look at. I know what Liberty Media are trying to do so by the off chance they or the FIA for some reason are looking at some random guy's blog, here's some ideas.
Okay first of all there's car design, now this sort of thing is more the FIA's expertise but I fear that F1 is going to fall back in this particular race to really grab people's attention. Recently, Formula E revealed the car that teams would use for the upcoming 2018-19 season and well, it looks absolutely incredible!
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| Image courtesy of www.autosport.com |
When the Generation Two Formula E car was revealed, it definitely captured that wow factor that I feel we need in F1 and have been lacking for some time. When it comes to styling, you can either make it look smooth and beautiful, or aggressive and exciting and I feel we need to see F1 cars as being out of this world incredible, that we look at in utter awe. The Formula E car looks like a Batmobile, I want those sort of comparisons to be made with Formula One.
Of course I haven't steered away from my feelings, the halo which looks absolutely hideous. I'm completely alright if it's a placeholder for an aeroscreen to be developed, I think the FIA's attitude towards the halo has been as hideous as it is, implementing it in all of its single seater categories as almost like a panic. The halo isn't the future, an aeroscreen is and I hope the FIA aren't patting themselves on the back just yet and are proceeding by developing an aeroscreen that all single seaters can use for the foreseeable future.
Next up regarding the cars is the technology, now for some reason people think the current engines are abysmal, I like the current 1.6-litre turbo V6 engines though I do think a few things can be done to make the engines sound a bit nicer, like a blown diffuser that were on the 2011 F1 cars, which I think equipped with the turbos can make for some nice deceleration noises. Raising the RPM limit I believe is also necessary, I know these smaller engines can be some real screamers and it would make for a nicer sound, I know they are planning to raise by about 3,000rpm and that can only be a good thing, I can only hope it'll work in a way that they actually do approach the limit as appose to what they do now which is start bouncing off the redline a bit earlier than the maximum RPM.
I'd love to see the hybrid systems utilised like how the LMP1 hybrid cars use theirs, allowing for such incredibly sharp and instant acceleration, maybe with the power coming through the front wheels possibly like I believe they did with the four wheel drive LMP1 hybrid vehicles. Also taking into account the aerodynamics that F1 have used over the years, the racing these days is really restricted due to getting dirty air from the car in front meaning cars can't get close and it sucks. I don't claim to be completely educated on aerodynamics but I have heard about Ground Effect and how it doesn't seem to be effected by dirty air, though European based racing don't seem to want to use it for safety reasons. I trust there can be a fine balance found because I'm sick of cars not being able to race because they're in "dirty air" and have to back away to save tyres and the engine.
I believe this next one may or may not be a nightmare to organise but with Liberty Media trying to improve the show for the fans, I had a brainwave a while back after racing a particular kind of car on Project CARS, and that was a BMW M1 Procar. Allow me to give you some backstory.
Back in 1979, a championship was put together by BMW in which F1, SportsCar and Touring Car drivers could all compete in the same cars, and they would race just before the Grand Prix took place. So F1 drivers were taking part in this series right before the Grand Prix itself, and they did this for eight of the nine European rounds that year.
This gave me an idea that would mean a little bit of fun for the attendants of the Grand Prix as well as people at home, and that is reviving the Procar name and having all the drivers race either at every GP event or a select few. There would be no practice or qualifying for the event itself, the first time a driver would be driving a Procar would be out the pits on the way to the grid. The way a grid would be decided would be a reversed order of the previous year's F1 championship results, with every new driver coming into F1 then being decided on when their official FIA entry was confirmed.
So for example if Procar was brought back for this year, the two rookies in F1 this year are Charles Leclerc and Sergey Sirotkin, if Sirotkin had officially entered F1 after Leclerc officially entered, Sirotkin would lead Leclerc on the Procar grid for the first race, with Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton lining up on the back row.
For every race afterwards, it would be a reverse grid of the previous race's results, and all races are only five lap sprints at every circuit. So there will be carnage and undoubtedly an incredible show being put on for the fans, and it would be a nice little bit of fun for the drivers in order to warm up before the race begins. In regards to if they would race at some circuits and not all, I'd pick all the European races along with Singapore, USA and Mexico.
The cars used in this series would be all powered by the same spec engine, being built to the same spec to comply to F1 engine regulations, so right now it would be 1.6-litre turbocharged V6 (though for cost reasons, I don't think they'd use the hybrid systems) developed by an engine manufacturer with no current F1 ties for example Cosworth, so no Mercedes, Ferrari, Renault or Honda power units.
The design of the cars like the BMW M1, very much a touring car or GT style but I would hope that it could drive a lot like a DTM or LMGTE car, so the drivers could throw it into corners and feel like they can push every single one of the five laps. So this would effectively be like Rallycross, short races where the drivers push albeit in equal cars which would make the racing even better.
As far as the cars used in Procar, Alfa Romeo attempted to make a Procar back in the day which used their 1988 3.5-litre V10 intended to be used by the Ligier F1 team that year, which is where I got my idea for using the current spec of F1 engines. Mercedes have made a car using their current F1 engine, the Project One, so it isn't out of the question at all, though as I've said before, I fear that having the Mercedes F1 team in F1 as well as making Procar engines would possibly mean they could exploit it.
So again, an independent engine manufacturer and chassis developer working with a racing team to run all the Procar entries and maybe for some extra fun, all the F1 drivers can customise the look of their cars out of their own or their sponsor's pockets so they can all be told apart. What do you all think of this?
Speaking of what I'd like to see at F1 race weekends, the European F1 weekend for the most part consists of two subcategories as well as Porsche SuperCup. Outside of Europe, the support schedule is little to almost non existent. By 2019, the GP3 support series will become FIA Formula 3 and will be on the F1 support schedule at the European events alongside FIA F2, and this gave me an idea to increase the support bill for many nation's Grand Prix.
In recent years, the FIA started backing a lot of national entry level single seater championships, such examples include the British Formula Ford championship, the ADAC Formel Masters and the Formula Abarth championship, which all are on the support programmes of the British Touring Cars, the ADAC GT Masters and the Italian GT championship. After the FIA started backing these championships, they became British, German and Italian Formula 4. (Note: The rebrand for the British championship began in 2015 however since the name 'British F4' had already been taken by a BRDC backed championship, this series was known as MSA Formula until early 2016 when the BRDC British F4 became BRDC British F3).
I bring this up because I think it would be a really good idea to have these national F4 championships join their parent championships at their country's Grand Prix, so for example: British F4 has all of its rounds supporting the BTCC still but then will also have an event at Silverstone supporting F3, F2 and F1 at the British Grand Prix. Same with the Italian F4 championship heading to Monza to race on the Italian Grand Prix support schedule, just like how the American F4 championship supports the United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas.
Just doing some research now, apparently the support schedule at this year's Canadian Grand Prix will be the Ferrari Challenge, the Micra Cup and Formule 1600 which is honestly a bit tragic. I'd love to see perhaps the new F3 Americas championship go there, and some more national championships even if they're on the level like that of Australian Supercars, since they have a non-championship round at Albert Park during the Australian Grand Prix weekend. Just add something to this list.
Back in 1979, a championship was put together by BMW in which F1, SportsCar and Touring Car drivers could all compete in the same cars, and they would race just before the Grand Prix took place. So F1 drivers were taking part in this series right before the Grand Prix itself, and they did this for eight of the nine European rounds that year.
This gave me an idea that would mean a little bit of fun for the attendants of the Grand Prix as well as people at home, and that is reviving the Procar name and having all the drivers race either at every GP event or a select few. There would be no practice or qualifying for the event itself, the first time a driver would be driving a Procar would be out the pits on the way to the grid. The way a grid would be decided would be a reversed order of the previous year's F1 championship results, with every new driver coming into F1 then being decided on when their official FIA entry was confirmed.
So for example if Procar was brought back for this year, the two rookies in F1 this year are Charles Leclerc and Sergey Sirotkin, if Sirotkin had officially entered F1 after Leclerc officially entered, Sirotkin would lead Leclerc on the Procar grid for the first race, with Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton lining up on the back row.
For every race afterwards, it would be a reverse grid of the previous race's results, and all races are only five lap sprints at every circuit. So there will be carnage and undoubtedly an incredible show being put on for the fans, and it would be a nice little bit of fun for the drivers in order to warm up before the race begins. In regards to if they would race at some circuits and not all, I'd pick all the European races along with Singapore, USA and Mexico.
The cars used in this series would be all powered by the same spec engine, being built to the same spec to comply to F1 engine regulations, so right now it would be 1.6-litre turbocharged V6 (though for cost reasons, I don't think they'd use the hybrid systems) developed by an engine manufacturer with no current F1 ties for example Cosworth, so no Mercedes, Ferrari, Renault or Honda power units.
The design of the cars like the BMW M1, very much a touring car or GT style but I would hope that it could drive a lot like a DTM or LMGTE car, so the drivers could throw it into corners and feel like they can push every single one of the five laps. So this would effectively be like Rallycross, short races where the drivers push albeit in equal cars which would make the racing even better.
As far as the cars used in Procar, Alfa Romeo attempted to make a Procar back in the day which used their 1988 3.5-litre V10 intended to be used by the Ligier F1 team that year, which is where I got my idea for using the current spec of F1 engines. Mercedes have made a car using their current F1 engine, the Project One, so it isn't out of the question at all, though as I've said before, I fear that having the Mercedes F1 team in F1 as well as making Procar engines would possibly mean they could exploit it.
So again, an independent engine manufacturer and chassis developer working with a racing team to run all the Procar entries and maybe for some extra fun, all the F1 drivers can customise the look of their cars out of their own or their sponsor's pockets so they can all be told apart. What do you all think of this?
Speaking of what I'd like to see at F1 race weekends, the European F1 weekend for the most part consists of two subcategories as well as Porsche SuperCup. Outside of Europe, the support schedule is little to almost non existent. By 2019, the GP3 support series will become FIA Formula 3 and will be on the F1 support schedule at the European events alongside FIA F2, and this gave me an idea to increase the support bill for many nation's Grand Prix.
In recent years, the FIA started backing a lot of national entry level single seater championships, such examples include the British Formula Ford championship, the ADAC Formel Masters and the Formula Abarth championship, which all are on the support programmes of the British Touring Cars, the ADAC GT Masters and the Italian GT championship. After the FIA started backing these championships, they became British, German and Italian Formula 4. (Note: The rebrand for the British championship began in 2015 however since the name 'British F4' had already been taken by a BRDC backed championship, this series was known as MSA Formula until early 2016 when the BRDC British F4 became BRDC British F3).
I bring this up because I think it would be a really good idea to have these national F4 championships join their parent championships at their country's Grand Prix, so for example: British F4 has all of its rounds supporting the BTCC still but then will also have an event at Silverstone supporting F3, F2 and F1 at the British Grand Prix. Same with the Italian F4 championship heading to Monza to race on the Italian Grand Prix support schedule, just like how the American F4 championship supports the United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas.
Just doing some research now, apparently the support schedule at this year's Canadian Grand Prix will be the Ferrari Challenge, the Micra Cup and Formule 1600 which is honestly a bit tragic. I'd love to see perhaps the new F3 Americas championship go there, and some more national championships even if they're on the level like that of Australian Supercars, since they have a non-championship round at Albert Park during the Australian Grand Prix weekend. Just add something to this list.
Actually after I initially finished this article, I saw a video on Twitter of what I would learn to be, the Australian Supertrucks which in the video itself were supporting the Aussie Supercars at Adelaide. What makes the series such an incredible spectacle, they have ramps put out on the track's straights and they gain some incredible air! I'd love to see a World Supertrucks championship like that supporting the F1 constantly, and now I think about it, I'd love to see some stunting at all the races like how they do between heats at the Race Of Champions. Maybe this would require structuring the weekend differently, having F2, F3, F4 etc. the days before the Grand Prix, as to give the diehard motorsport fans a reason to buy a full weekend ticket.
I honestly count my lucky stars that Europe gets the feeder series on the support schedule and I just hope that overseas Grand Prix can get some more support races from various other championships. Don't get me wrong, I am not going to say that the Micra Cup doesn't offer up some exciting racing, I've seen the Renault Clio Cup series when I have visited Croft for the BTCC and those small cars pack some punch, but we also had the Porsche Carrera Cup, British F4, Ginetta SuperCup and the Ginetta Juniors.
Now for the F1 eSports championship which I know the new F1 owners are pushing heavily and has proven to be incredibly successful, I'd love to see this concept expanded so they can do what Formula E does. Formula E have a single day structure mostly for their events and have a lot of time to kill between qualifying and the race since their cars are charging, and what the organisers do is have the drivers as well as fans compete to try and qualify for a short sprint race on a simulator. Formula E use the mobile game Real Racing 3, and I do hope to fuck that they work with the developers of RR3 to create a dedicated Formula E game.
Formula One already have a dedicated game, which is how they managed to create the F1 eSports championship and put on an incredible show. With the plans to expand the eSports championship, I can see the potential perhaps to run the eSports championship full time to host their races on the evening of the Saturday proceeding the following day's Grand Prix, but maybe as a lead up to the eSports event itself, have drivers volunteer to compete alongside attending fans who will try to qualify for the chance to race alongside real life drivers, just like what they do in Formula E. It would give plenty of attending fans reason to stay after the final day's race.
Speaking of which, I would like to genuinely know what else could be done for fans attending the Grand Prix itself. When I went to Silverstone in 2011, Jamie Archer from the X Factor was there performing next to the Wellington Straight, I don't really do much live concert stuff but that's all I can really think of. They did also invite the attendees to come on stage for a 'talent show' with some cringey play on the judges, someone acting like Simon Cowell and calling it 'Silverstone's Got Talent'.
I remember one year the YouTube channel 'P1 Pole Position' was there and I was actually meant to go on one of their shows but I couldn't make it. So with the rise of WTF1 in recent years, I can an opening for them to have an interacting factor in there among the audience. I've always liked the idea of a motorsport show with a live audience, maybe even bringing on online personalities and Grand Prix drivers perhaps in a head to head style format on a gaming rig.
Finally for the people watching at home, F1 have launched a streaming service for both current and classic races, and this would really modernise F1 if they did it right. I'd love to see onboard cameras where the viewers can rotate 360 degrees, and the ability to jump from F1 car to another, among other viewing points from the click of a button, maybe even scrolling through different commentary feeds depending on their selected language. How about looking at real time telemetry? That'd probably be a stretch considering how the teams could take advantage of each other's telemetry, but it would be just throttle, braking, G-Force, and also timing to the exact thousandth of a second in real time, among other options like temperature, tyre wear etc. I'll leave the details to the professionals.
Of course, it'd be very naïve of me to expect this to be taken into any sort of consideration but it is indeed wishful thinking. I haven't even mentioned it at length but the new logo looks horrible, I'll put up a picture along with a design I made on paper which I'll show to you all now.
Top left is the previous F1 logo used between 1994 and 2017, the top right is the new logo that will unfortunately be used from 2018 and the bottom is what I made. I took inspiration from the FIA junior formulae championship logos, that being from Formula Two, Formula Three and Formula Four, and I retained the black and red colour scheme from the previous F1 logo.
The old logo was iconic and much beloved, the new one I honestly cannot think I or indeed many people will get used to. I get that Liberty wanted to put a new face to F1, to show a new period was coming led by new people, but I feel like they went too far with the logo as it just looks hideous, and I wish they had looked to the junior categories for inspiration as appose to ESPN.
Anyway that's very miniscule, F1's new logo is hideous but not the main concern, it can come across as petulant but it doesn't disguise how horrible the logo is.
So with all of that out of the way, what do you all think? Do you agree with some of my suggestions, do you not agree with some? Anything you're thinking of that I may have missed? Feel free to leave it in a comment below.
Alright! That'll be all from me, so if you enjoyed what I have had to say, I'd hugely appreciate it if you spread this around, and if you're reading my blog for the first time and you like what you see, if you want to see more of what I have to say in the future then leave your email in the 'Follow By Email' option or follow me on Twitter @TheLucaFormat.
Hope to see all of you soon, so until we meet again.
Luca.
I honestly count my lucky stars that Europe gets the feeder series on the support schedule and I just hope that overseas Grand Prix can get some more support races from various other championships. Don't get me wrong, I am not going to say that the Micra Cup doesn't offer up some exciting racing, I've seen the Renault Clio Cup series when I have visited Croft for the BTCC and those small cars pack some punch, but we also had the Porsche Carrera Cup, British F4, Ginetta SuperCup and the Ginetta Juniors.
Now for the F1 eSports championship which I know the new F1 owners are pushing heavily and has proven to be incredibly successful, I'd love to see this concept expanded so they can do what Formula E does. Formula E have a single day structure mostly for their events and have a lot of time to kill between qualifying and the race since their cars are charging, and what the organisers do is have the drivers as well as fans compete to try and qualify for a short sprint race on a simulator. Formula E use the mobile game Real Racing 3, and I do hope to fuck that they work with the developers of RR3 to create a dedicated Formula E game.
Formula One already have a dedicated game, which is how they managed to create the F1 eSports championship and put on an incredible show. With the plans to expand the eSports championship, I can see the potential perhaps to run the eSports championship full time to host their races on the evening of the Saturday proceeding the following day's Grand Prix, but maybe as a lead up to the eSports event itself, have drivers volunteer to compete alongside attending fans who will try to qualify for the chance to race alongside real life drivers, just like what they do in Formula E. It would give plenty of attending fans reason to stay after the final day's race.
Speaking of which, I would like to genuinely know what else could be done for fans attending the Grand Prix itself. When I went to Silverstone in 2011, Jamie Archer from the X Factor was there performing next to the Wellington Straight, I don't really do much live concert stuff but that's all I can really think of. They did also invite the attendees to come on stage for a 'talent show' with some cringey play on the judges, someone acting like Simon Cowell and calling it 'Silverstone's Got Talent'.
I remember one year the YouTube channel 'P1 Pole Position' was there and I was actually meant to go on one of their shows but I couldn't make it. So with the rise of WTF1 in recent years, I can an opening for them to have an interacting factor in there among the audience. I've always liked the idea of a motorsport show with a live audience, maybe even bringing on online personalities and Grand Prix drivers perhaps in a head to head style format on a gaming rig.
Finally for the people watching at home, F1 have launched a streaming service for both current and classic races, and this would really modernise F1 if they did it right. I'd love to see onboard cameras where the viewers can rotate 360 degrees, and the ability to jump from F1 car to another, among other viewing points from the click of a button, maybe even scrolling through different commentary feeds depending on their selected language. How about looking at real time telemetry? That'd probably be a stretch considering how the teams could take advantage of each other's telemetry, but it would be just throttle, braking, G-Force, and also timing to the exact thousandth of a second in real time, among other options like temperature, tyre wear etc. I'll leave the details to the professionals.
Of course, it'd be very naïve of me to expect this to be taken into any sort of consideration but it is indeed wishful thinking. I haven't even mentioned it at length but the new logo looks horrible, I'll put up a picture along with a design I made on paper which I'll show to you all now.
 |
| Image is my own. |
The old logo was iconic and much beloved, the new one I honestly cannot think I or indeed many people will get used to. I get that Liberty wanted to put a new face to F1, to show a new period was coming led by new people, but I feel like they went too far with the logo as it just looks hideous, and I wish they had looked to the junior categories for inspiration as appose to ESPN.
Anyway that's very miniscule, F1's new logo is hideous but not the main concern, it can come across as petulant but it doesn't disguise how horrible the logo is.
So with all of that out of the way, what do you all think? Do you agree with some of my suggestions, do you not agree with some? Anything you're thinking of that I may have missed? Feel free to leave it in a comment below.
Alright! That'll be all from me, so if you enjoyed what I have had to say, I'd hugely appreciate it if you spread this around, and if you're reading my blog for the first time and you like what you see, if you want to see more of what I have to say in the future then leave your email in the 'Follow By Email' option or follow me on Twitter @TheLucaFormat.
Hope to see all of you soon, so until we meet again.
Luca.
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